Liahann R. Bannerman
Director of the United Way of King County Volunteer Center; Chair of the Family Strengthening Neighborhood Transformation Task Force

Volunteering can make a real impact in the lives of families and communities by engaging and empowering residents. Through a strong partnership, the Points of Light Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation are expanding the use of volunteering to connect neighborhoods and create family-supportive places. The Family Strengthening Neighborhood Transformation Task Force, comprised of Volunteer Center representatives is furthering this work with the leadership of Liahann R. Bannerman, Director of the United Way of King County Volunteer Center in Seattle, Wash.

Tell us about Family Strengthening Neighborhood Transformation Task Force and its goals.
The Family Strengthening Neighborhood Transformation (FSNT) Task Force is composed of a diverse group of Volunteer Center representatives with experience working with low-income communities across the country. Our work is part of the Points of Light Foundation's partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to promote volunteering to transform “tough” neighborhoods into connected and family-supported places. We are exploring the role Volunteer Centers currently play in serving and engaging low-income communities, and we will be reaching out to Volunteer Centers to create awareness, and to help build their capacity and strengthen their commitment to promote, implement, and advance volunteer practices and initiatives that engage and serve low-income families and communities.

Why where you interested in becoming part of the Task Force?
I am excited about the Task Force and the concept of family strengthening because it involves the community in making decisions about what is best for them. An important role for Volunteer Centers is shifting from a paternalistic model of ‘giving charity to the less fortunate' to acknowledging assets already within a community and building on them. Because low-income people often do not fit the current “mold” of a volunteer, those in the field may perpetuate the idea that the poor are not willing to help themselves and just want a handout. We cannot just lead people in our direction, but must allow them to define their direction, as they know best what will work in their community. Increasing social capital, economic development opportunities, and access to services are all potential results of this approach.

What roles can Volunteer Centers play in improving outcomes for low-income families and children?
One of the Task Force's goals is to better define the niche that Volunteer Centers can fill in this area. For example, we are exploring their role in educating agencies on how to engage low-income volunteers, or provide other levels of support to volunteer programs. For some Volunteer Centers, family strengthening work may mean leading a local effort to engage low-income volunteers in a very “hands on” way like recruiting community members to help prepare taxes at local Earned Income Tax Credit sites. For others, it may mean partnering with an existing family support coalition and providing volunteer management training to their members. We're at the early stages of identifying the scope of work that is happening, and realize just as family strengthening will look different in various communities, it will also look different for various Volunteer Centers. In many communities this work is currently happening, and Volunteer Centers may simply be calling it something else.

What strategies have you used that have been effective?
One strategy is using leaders from within the community and helping to develop new leaders. My Volunteer Center is involved with a 10-year project to alleviate poverty in part of our country that has a high immigrant/refugee population. The project has engaged community members in developing a strategic plan, hired informal leaders from within the community (ICLs) to conduct outreach, and provided translation and other services to encourage participation. We are providing leadership training to the ICLs so they can convene their respective communities to address the issues that matter to them, and continuing educational opportunities to community members to develop their leadership. The involvement of the ICLs is a critical piece of this work, and vital to its success because of the level of trust these individuals have in the community.

How can other community groups get involved in this work?
To be successful, this work requires the involvement of other community groups, whether they are mainstream nonprofits serving low-income communities, or grassroots organizations from within the community. But this should not be a group of organizations deciding what is best for engaging low-income people in volunteerism. Low-income families need to be involved in the development of whatever initiative or project is being proposed and implemented.

Do you have any thoughts to add, especially in light of recent events in the Gulfcoast as a result of Katrina?
The situation in the Gulf Coast demonstrates the need for Volunteer Centers and other volunteer organizations to be more intentional about engaging, not just serving, poor communities. We have the opportunity to increase connections and community resources through volunteering. Unfortunately, it took an event with the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina to bring abject poverty into public dialogue. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster we are unable to prevent. What we can prevent, however, are the conditions that lead to a natural disaster becoming a national tragedy. Every day individuals and families experience "personal" disasters that leave them homeless and suffering - in private. The aftermath of Katrina merely provided an opportunity for all of us to see, up close, the impact of poverty on our nation. The VCNN Strategic plan states that "Volunteer Centers are catalysts for social action." There is no time like the present to put that ideal into action. At this point in our nation's history, all Volunteer Centers should be thinking about how we might use volunteerism to bridge economic and cultural disparities and find long-term solutions.